I prefer macs, but run PC, it really doesn't make much difference, and it makes no difference to the results I can get with photos. Apples prices are *different* moreso than 'more expensive'. Its like the luxury edition of a sedan, the leather seats are nice, the independent air-cushioned suspension is nice, the built in ipod dock and video player is all great - but unnecessary. The big difference is that Apple doesn't allow OEM manufacturing of Mac compliant systems. MS does, so every crappy manufacturer can throw together some cheap junk and call it a PC. And its hard to compare apple to PC desktop since their cheapest one is their $2k mac Pro.

Having invested a lot already in windows, I will probably stay with it for a long time though. Once apple starts allowing production of Mac ready ATX-compliant motherboards, I will be aaalll over it. If they came out tomorrow I would get one immediately.

By the way my vehicle does have independent air cushioned suspension and it is niiice!

I have recently moved from the PC world to the Mac world and thought i'd share my experiences. After years of dealing with PC based laptops from various manufacturers (Sony, Dell, HP, IBM, etc.) I found that the one that worked the best was my girlfriends macbook. It would last longer on batteries, run cooler, go to sleep and wake up faster.

Eventually I decided to get one and haven't looked back. It just works 'better' - There is something in one single company controlling the hardware and software for ultimate compatibility. The best bit is that when I do need to run software that I can only get for windows. I can either boot up in windows or run a windows virtual machine (although mac people really hate seeing a new macbook running windows - its funny to see their faces) .

Well, you definitively have to give Apple the academy award for ultimate coolness, just about every new Mac, iPod or whatever gadget the come up with makes me think: "I need one of those, I'm not sure what for, but I definitively need it..."

That said, I'm a PC guy (who uses the PC version of iTunes to synch his Apple iPod Touch... ), it's not that I think Macs are not outstanding pieces of hardware, it's just that there are certain things I want from my computers that Macs can't provide. To start with, I love to set up my own computer system, and as others have mention earlier in this very thread, that kind of narrows it down to a PC doesn't it?

Also, I must say that I believe Windows have been unjustly tagged as "slow", "unsafe", "unstable", etc. I have a 5 years old Centrino Laptop running on Windows XP professional and it's been 4 years since its last formatting. Needless to say it's not a speed demon by today's standards, but it smoothly runs just about any application except hard-core games, and that includes concurrent runnings of Eclipse developing environment, Oracle Database and Weblogic application server, with "only" 2GB RAM and an 80G 4200rpm HDD.

Also, there are certain popular applications that just aren't there for Mac, including AutoCAD and othe Engineering tools which must be run on a PC (although perhaps AutoDesk might surprise us with a Mac version of AutoCAD, who knows?). Anyway, for the time beign, I just can't imagine an Engineering studio with everybody running AutoCAD on a emulator.

Not to mention games, few if any games are released for Mac, only for PC. I'm a part time gamer myself so there yoy've got another reason for me to chose PCs.

Again, let me clarify I'm not trying to throw any dirt on Macs, I love them, it's just that, as of today, they don't suit my needs the way a PC can. One thing for sure though, if I ever get seriously into video editing, first thing I'll do is go straight into an Apple Store.

My current laptop is a Dell Studio 17 with a Core i7 proccessor; it's mostly plastic, of course, but it sure doesn't look cheap, quite the opposite in fact, seems built like a tank to me. I was planning to write a small review of it for the hardware section of the forum but I'm afraid I'm yet to find the time to do it.

Back to the point, Dell's Studio series is placed between the budget Inspiron series and the top XPS/Alienware series. But I can tell you, it borrows more from the XPS series than from the Inspiron: Nice keyboard, great screen, outstanding JBL branded 2.1 audio system, multitouch touchpad, decent graphics card, etc...

All in all, a great piece of Hardware IMHO, and the Core i7 is a monster.

Of course, Apple is also a great choice and has a great line of laptops, if they suit your purposes, they won't disappoint you.

Az this is the nearest thing we have to a Sticky Mac thread in the forum I thought I'd add a post to flag that Sophos have recently announced a free anti-virus program for the Mac. Read more at Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac: Home Edition. I've just installed it on my new MacBook Air and it seems to do what it says on the tin. Threats may be few on the Mac but at this price (free) it's hard to argue against installing it unless you already have another solution.

If you are running from Boot Camp and have all the Apple drivers installed set up should be the same as with any PC. If you are running virtualisation software (such as Parallels) you should have some configuration settings you can use to share existing internet connections and key combinations to right click.

From the Boot Camp install manual...
You can right-click when running Windows on your Mac using an Apple Mighty Mouse.
If you are using a Mac portable computer, you can also right-click using the trackpad.
To right-click using a Mighty Mouse:
Click the upper-right side of the mouse.
To right-click using a trackpad:
Place two fingers on the trackpad and click the trackpad button.

well, I have been a big apple user for several years. I like the apple design and the OS and still have an imac and macbook. However, I made a decision a few months ago to no longer buy apple products, from PC to mobile phone.

Currently I have an iMac, Macbook pro 13", iPhone 3 and iPad.

The iMac just sits in the living room used for looking up recipes mostly. It used to be my main workstation but soon became way too slow and way too unsightly with all the external drives attached to expand the HDD capacity. I still need to use it to edit a website. But that soon will change.

Status - already started using a pc nearly 12 months ago instead of this and just bought a new workstation. I looked at buying a mac workstation, but the price was double. This was the end of my mac days.

The macbook does get used, however I do not want to maintain 2 different operating systems and as my primary workstation is a PC, byebye macbook. So, initially I was going to buy a new PC laptop (poor designs). Instead I am going to install windows 7 on the macbook, add some more ram (if possible) and swap the HDD for an SSD drive. Bybye mac OS (shame as I like it) but I get to keep the beautifully crafted macbook.

iPhone - had a couple of these. Like them but getting bored. Nothing significant has really changed and never really used them for email and texting as hate the on-screen keyboard (too small for my fat fingers). Already have a blackberry work phone, which I love. Just received new BB for personal phone, so byebye iPhone (my mother is happy as she will get it).

iPad - annoys the hell out of me that it does not run Flash. Perhaps flash does have a lot of problems but should apple really prevent me from viewing flash content? no they should not. Will sell it and look for an alternative in the new year (seem to be lots of new ones on the way).

I am starting to feel guilty having a mac.com email address now:)

edit: regret not having an iphone after using the bb torch. aweful phone really. Looking forward t a new iphone now:).

in additional, will be upgrading iMac with an SSD or will buy new one with SSD and standard HDD built in. They just look better in the living room and main website wil not likely change authoring program for at least 1 year due to no time, so need to run the existing program......

I was a PC users for many years and heres why I switched almost 4 years ago. If we're are talking about internals of computers Pc vs Macs are no different. Nothing to fight about there. Everyone is still under the illusion that you pay loads more for a Mac then a PC for the same price. Well thats not really true anymore, if you buy a PC that has similar specs to a Mac, the price wont be that dissimilar. And before anyone argues that go check it out for yourself on the dell website. Spec say an iMac as close as possible to say a Dell the price similar.
Plus you get the benefits of a beautifully designed computer, that isn't an ugly black plastic creeky box with computer parts screwed to it. Plus the Mac will last longer, yes you can buy a cheap PC but how long will it last?? Here are some other OS related reasons why Mac is better than PC.

PCs

- Processes become more laborious over time, like booting-up or loading a program
- VIRUS SOFTWARE the absolute pain in the rear end, slows down computer, constantly updating and bothering me.
- Viri and their associated problems once your computer becomes infected.
- Stupid annoying pop-ups that read to me as if I am stupid.
- I found the operating system so frustrating to use, nothing was were you would think it would be.
- Everything seemed more difficult to do on a PC.
- Software was designed horribly (take a look at Word blurgh!)

Mac

- A very well thought out OS, everything is where it should be and where you think it is.
- No need for virus software, taking up processing power and memory.
- It doesn't slow down over time like boot-ups still take under 1min after year of use.
- Seamless integration of my devices with software on my mac, iTunes, iCal, Pictures, Movies
- Everything is easier to do on a Mac
- Apple have guide lines on software GUI hence NEARLY every piece of software is set out in pretty much the same fashion (except windows written software)
- A Mac can do everything a PC can do but better, faster and with less shouting from me.

I could go on, so I'll sum it up in one sentence. Every time I use a windows computer I want to punch it and throw it out of a window.

Chris

p.s. I may have missed some things out but I'm really hungry right now and this was a bit rushed!

I disagree with the above on price point. I have macs and pcs. PC for sure is way cheaper. I know because I bought better specs than a Mac (Mac Pro) for less. It was the only reason I went for it as I needed high spec and I had a certain budget. The PC met all my expectations and budget. The mac did not on budget. I would ahve bought mac over PC if the costs were the same.

MacPros are slightly different, they are very much aimed at people like video engineers who have no real limit on money to spend on specing up. If you look at the what most people will want to buy like iMacs or the laptops there isn't much of a price difference. Also MacPros are much better engineered on the inside then any PC I've seen so you're probably paying more for that.

You do have to be aware of Apples business strategy. Most people are not, hence the general misconception that they are over priced.

It really is so depressing to see the same old mantra being repeated. Check out this Symantec report and don't try any semantics (whoops, bad pun ) on me about what is and isn't a virus. Malware is malware, Jnanabot, to take one example, is malware and Jnanabot can run in an OS X environment. It may not exploit any OS X vulnerabilities (assumption on my part) but it's still a good idea to have a way of detecting its presence.

I've now got used to my MacBook Air despite it being less than intuitive at times to a long time Windows user like myself, I enjoy using it and, for the record, I've not noticed any performance hit since I installed Sophos anti-virus on it. But, and it's in no way the fault of OS X, an accident of history now dictates that I'm going to have to Bootcamp it so I can also boot up into a native Windows OS simply because I will need to run some specialised software on it.

I'd argue that an OS is like the foundations of a building in that it provides a largely unseen base upon which to build one's working or home environment. Sometimes one needs a particular type of foundation upon which to erect a particular building (particular software) but that's not an argument against using other foundations when they do the job.